High School Grudge
by alayneni
Summary: This is part 3 in the High School History Series. Oliver meets an old classmate from his high school days. The classmate also happened to be at MIT with Felicity.


**_High School Grudge_**

 **An:** I do not own Arrow. Part 3 in the High School History Series. Thanks to my lovely beta missmeagan at Ao3.

 **Summary:** Oliver meets an old classmate from his high school days. The classmate also happened to be at MIT with Felicity.

* * *

Felicity and Oliver were at a cocktail reception hosted by Kord Industries in Coast City.

The company was looking for a partner for their new clean energy technology. Coast City had been the city they used to pilot the technology. During the day they had shown off to the prospective investors the benefit of the technology to the city. They were looking to take the technology to the next level and build a massive power grid to supply power to the entire west coast. It was a huge project and it was a project that Felicity wanted in on.

They had arrived the night before checking into their hotel as soon as they arrived.

Felicity had been unusually tired lately, so they headed straight to bed, not that Oliver minded. He loved having his wife in his arms. They awoke early the next day prepared for the field trip that had been planned for the group. Felicity enjoyed talking tech with the other scientist there.

She also enjoyed talking business with the other CEO's.

She had become great friends with Lucius Fox, former CEO of Wayne Enterprises, who had stayed on to mentor Bruce Wayne, the current CEO. Oliver had to admit that at first he had been crazy jealous every time Bruce was around but eventually when Felicity figured out his secret and Bruce assured Oliver that he had no romantic interest in Felicity, he relaxed.

Bruce was now in the category that he put Barry, another vigilante that would protect Felicity if need be. As a result, when she was talking to Bruce it was one of the few times he would not worry about her safety.

That night Felicity chose to wear a black halter top dress that stopped at her knees.

She looked fantastic and Oliver couldn't wait to get her back to the hotel room and get the dress off of her. They almost didn't make it to the reception on time when he saw her earlier but she had insisted that they couldn't be late and he would have to wait.

"Make sure you put on that charming smile of yours. He's coming this way," his wife said to him.

"We have to wow them if we want this deal to go through."

"I know," Oliver said with the fake smile plastered on his face as they greeted Ted Kord, the head of Kord Industries. "Ted how lovely to see you again," Oliver said. Felicity shook hands with Ted afterwards. They both agreed that Oliver would be the one to charm Ted.

"It's nice to see you both but I'm not the one you need to be flattering. I'm leaving the decision entirely up to my chief scientist; Dr. Milton Townsdale and his technical team. I'm not going to let ego get in the way of this decision. This project has to be technically sound."

"Agreed," Oliver responded, "Felicity and I are only interested in the project because of the benefits it would bring to those who could scarcely afford to pay their electricity bill."

Ted smiled, "Felicity, you've done a wonderful job with Queen Incorporated and I do hope your proposal is as sound as the initiatives you've implemented in Star City. It would be a pleasure working with you."

"I can assure you, I went over the proposal myself. It's a great proposal," Felicity said smiling charmingly at Ted.

The pressure of Oliver's hand on her waist increased and she knew in Oliver's mind there was a very fine line between men talking business with Felicity and men trying to flirt with her.

"Good luck," Ted said shaking their hands and heading over to the Wayne Enterprises contingent.

After Ted had moved on to the other bidders Oliver tried to remember where he knew the name Milton Townsdale from. It was vaguely familiar to him.

"This is going to be easy," Felicity gloated.

"It is?" Oliver asked. "I thought you said Wayne Enterprises had a fantastic proposal as well,"

"Yes they do but I know Milton. He was my GA for some of my labs at MIT."

"GA?"

"Do you not remember anything from college?"

"Nope, it's a drunken haze," Oliver said, his eyes taking note of all the men that stared at his wife's butt as they walked passed. "Graduate Assistant Oliver, he taught me my freshman year, he was really nice. I know exactly how to impress him."

Oliver pursed his lips, "Should I be concerned that you're talking about impressing another man."

Felicity attempted to punch him in the arm, "Ow, I don't know why I bother doing that. You're all muscle and it hurts me more than it does you." Oliver smirked at her but then he brought her injured fist to his lips and dropped a kiss on her knuckles, "there all better now."

Felicity blushed, "Make sure to use some of that charm on Milton."

"You want me to kiss his hand?" Oliver asked innocently. He knew he was riling her up.

"Oliver," Felicity said exasperatedly as she scanned the crowd for Milton. "There he is. With some of the guys from Stellmore."

"Let's go say hello then," Oliver said offering her his arm. Milton appeared to be just wrapping up with a last question to the Stellmore team about their proposal when they arrived.

He openly glared at them.

Oliver ducked his head to whisper in Felicity's ear, "I thought you said he was nice."

"He was," a confused Felicity replied.

Milton dismissed the Stellmore team and turned to them.

"Oliver Queen," he sneers at him with familiarity.

"Do I know you?" Oliver asked stupidly.

"You don't even remember me do you Queen. All those times you and Merlyn would tease me relentlessly about my height, my glasses, how I would never score with a girl. You made my life a living hell! All because I was a poor scholarship student from the Glades that your esteemed school needed to boost the average GPA of their students since rich kids were so dumb they didn't realise that they actually had to study."

Now it clicked in Oliver's mind, the scholarship student that used to be the butt of all of his and Tommy's pranks. He realised this wasn't going to be as easy as Felicity thought.

Milton turned to look at Felicity, "I'm surprised you would be with someone like him. You used to actually care about helping people. I'm sure all you do now is spread your legs for him."

Felicity visibly recoiled at the insult, automatically seeking comfort against Oliver's side. It hurt her hearing someone she used to respect and seek advice from, openly trash her like that.

"Milton," Oliver replied his voice dropping down to that of the Green Arrow's, "Say what you like about me, but no one talks to my wife like that." Milton actually took a step back, "How does it feel Queen, knowing that the power now lays in the hands of the nerd you and Merlyn used to hold upside down over the toilet?"

"Milton," Felicity said calmly, "Oliver isn't that person you remember. He's changed."

"No you've changed," he snapped at her, "The Felicity I remember would never be with a man like him. Was it the money, the power, his supposedly big dick, was that what you sold out for?"

Felicity was going to reply when Oliver cut her off, "Thank you for your time, Mr. Townsdale."

"It's Dr." He sneered at them.

Oliver ignored him in favour of guiding a distraught Felicity out of the room.

It was one thing for strangers to say those words to you; it was quite another thing when it was someone you used to call a friend. Oliver made the decision to head back to their room.

What would be the point of staying any longer?

It was clear QI would not be getting the contract, no matter how good the proposal was.

* * *

From the way his wife angrily kicked off her shoes, he knew she was mad with the outcome of the night.

"I'm sorry," Oliver said.

"What are you sorry for, you have nothing to apologise for Oliver. I'm not angry with you. I'm angry with Milton."

"Forget about it Felicity," Oliver said.

"But Oliver it isn't fair."

"Felicity, I've seen the little boost your ego gets when you can show off to your former high school classmates. You feel good that you've been able to do better than your high school bullies. Tommy and I were awful to him. This is a direct result of our recklessness.

"Let him have this win."

"Yes I did enjoy showing up Dusty and Veronica but it wasn't at the expense of others. We were going to harness that technology to help people in the Glades, the same community he grew up in. Over a thousand people would have benefited from the free energy initiative we were going to implement."

Oliver placed his hands on her shoulder, "Felicity, let him have his victory. Besides you said there were some university students you had been keeping an eye on that had a few good ideas. We could invest in them. I may not be able to undo the damage I did but perhaps I can help others succeed instead."

Felicity wrapped her arms around him and rested her head against his chest. It was one of her favourite positions. "You're a good person Oliver. Don't ever forget that and don't let anybody tell you otherwise."

"How could I ever forget that when you remind me every day," Oliver said resting his head on top of hers. Everyday he said a silent pray that someone out there thought he deserved to have such a beautiful wife.

"Now, let's see about getting you out of this dress."

* * *

Three days later they received the expected news that Wayne Enterprises had won the bid. However, what they hadn't expected was that both Lucius and Bruce had insisted that QI be included since they had were headquartered in the West and there were aspects of QI's proposal that they wanted to incorporate into the project.

Ted Kord had readily agreed. QI would be working directly with Wayne Enterprises as a subcontractor on the specific parts of the project where QI's tech was the best option.

It was a win-win for all involved and QI still invested in the young upcoming scientists.

* * *

 **An:** Thanks for reading. This story was inspired by a reviewer KK1986 at AO3. Part 4 is titled _Middle Egypt_.

 _fin_


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